Red Bull must choose between stopping the RB22’s persistent bouncing (porpoising) and protecting lap time. Team principal Laurent Mekies says a straightforward fix would halt the bounce but cost pace, so he will not approve any rushed or performance‑costly change.

The bouncing was visible at the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal and affected Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar. Engineers are analysing factory data to find a measured fix that removes the bounce without losing pace; Mekies says there is nothing they are seeing that cannot be fixed this year, but he warns the problem could reappear in Monaco. He wants a considered solution that preserves the team’s competitiveness.

McLaren unveiled a one-off livery for the Monaco Grand Prix to mark the team’s 1,000th F1 start. The MCL40s for Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri will carry the special paint, feature a large “1,000” on the sidepods and include hidden references to McLaren’s first race, major victories, championship successes, Triple Crown links and the team’s world‑record pit stop. McLaren billed the design “McLaren Never Quits.” Some reports described the paint as metallic papaya and anthracite; others called it orange and black. McLaren said the design was created for Monaco and will also be used at the Spanish GP.

McLaren will stage a special moment on the grid on Thursday, June 4 when the team’s first F1 car, the M2B, will be displayed alongside the MCL40. The original M2B is owned by Richard Mille. Senior figures expected to attend include CEO Zak Brown, team principal Andrea Stella, the drivers and F1 president Stefano Domenicali, and McLaren has invited its living grand prix winners. The drivers will wear matching special overalls for the occasion. Zak Brown said the celebration recognises the team’s “grit and determination,” and CMO Lou McEwen said the livery honours the challenges and resilience that define McLaren.

The 1,000th start milestone ties back to McLaren’s F1 debut in Monaco in 1966 and coincides with the 60th anniversary of that first appearance. McLaren is the second team in F1 history to reach 1,000 starts, after Ferrari reached the mark in 2020. The team highlighted its historical record in the announcement, citing 203 Grand Prix wins, 561 podiums, 177 poles, 13 Drivers’ Championships and 10 Constructors’ Championships.

McLaren noted the Monaco special is the fifth one-off livery it has produced in six years, following a pale blue Gulf scheme in 2021, a “Triple Crown” design in 2023, a 30-year Ayrton Senna tribute in 2024 and a 1960s‑inspired livery in 2025 when Lando Norris won the race.

James Vowles insisted he has “zero doubt” that Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon are the driver pairing he wants to keep for the foreseeable future, dismissing suggestions either is seeking an exit as the mid-season “silly season” approaches. Vowles said both drivers want to remain “part of this journey,” credited them with galvanizing the team through a difficult winter, and noted Sainz signed a multi-year deal for 2025 while Albon joined in 2022 and signed a multi-year extension in 2024. Sainz publicly welcomed the Grove operation’s recent hires and the team’s action plan.

Williams has slipped from fifth in the 2025 Constructors’ Championship to eighth early in 2026, sitting on seven points from the first five rounds and scoring points on four occasions. The team traced the slide largely to an overweight FW48, winter production delays and challenges adapting to new regulations. Vowles said the engineering response included roughly 32 distinct work streams delivered between Japan and Miami, focused on weight reduction and a substantial aero package, with specific changes to the floor, bodywork, exhaust positioning, rear suspension and turbo/power-unit usage that he said have narrowed the gap to the works teams.

Grove has recruited senior personnel from rivals including McLaren, Mercedes and Alpine and appointed former McLaren COO Piers Thynne to a senior role. Vowles said “the organization has changed and can quickly add performance,” but he acknowledged more visible progress is required and that drivers’ continued commitment will depend on on-track improvement. He framed his comments against expected driver-market movement in 2026, dismissed transfer rumours, and maintained that the setbacks will not derail Williams’ roadmap toward a significant performance step in 2028 and the ambition to fight for championships by 2030. Sainz’s recent recovery, including back-to-back ninth-place finishes in Miami and Canada and reaching the final stage of Sprint qualifying in Montreal, offered a platform Williams hopes to build on at the Monaco Grand Prix.

Cadillac rejected social-media speculation that it planned to replace Valtteri Bottas with reserve driver Colton Herta. Team principal Graeme Lowdon told PlanetF1 the reports were “baseless and illogical,” a “complete fabrication” and had “no basis in truth.” The rumours followed Bottas appearing slower than teammate Sergio Perez in Canada and included suggestions of a switch ahead of the Monaco race, but Lowdon said those claims were wide of the mark.

Lowdon defended both Bottas and Perez, saying they had been doing extra development work as Cadillac built up its operation and that outsiders did not understand those tasks. He said it was premature to judge Bottas on current standings and that the team needed to gather more data over the remainder of the season before making performance assessments. Observers and Cadillac noted the GM-backed project has been set back by the challenges of building a team from scratch; early teething problems and organisational complexity are influencing results more than any imminent driver change. The entry debuted this season as F1’s 11th team, sits 10th in the constructors’ championship and has not yet scored a championship point.

Cadillac also pointed to practical and contractual limits on a mid-season change. Lowdon and reports emphasised that Herta does not hold the FIA Super Licence required to race in F1, PlanetF1 said Bottas is a valued member of the programme, and media accounts noted both drivers spent 2025 on the sidelines. Perez is a recent departure from Red Bull, and Bottas is understood to have a contract with an option to continue in 2027. Cadillac’s statements largely closed down immediate speculation while preserving the normal end‑of‑season evaluation process.

The FIA has banned active aerodynamic “straight mode” and removed DRS for the 2026 Monaco Grand Prix, ruling that cars must run with fixed aerodynamic surfaces for safety and circuit-specific reasons. The governing body confirmed straight mode will not be available during laps at Monte Carlo and F1.com’s official track map shows no straight-mode activation zones. Officials cited Monaco’s curved start-finish layout, the lack of any sustained section meeting the FIA’s minimum three-second activation requirement, the Tunnel exit speeds and limited run-off as reasons the adjustable wings and straight-mode stability limits are incompatible with the circuit. The FIA said the decision makes Monaco the first race weekend without moveable wings since DRS was introduced in 2011 and stressed the restriction is targeted to Monaco rather than a permanent rule change.

Overtaking aids will be limited to the new Overtake Mode, with a detection window placed between the Swimming Pool and Rascasse corners and activation occurring on the run to the final corner, just before Turns 18 and 19 (Anthony Noghes). The FIA and drivers warned that deploying straight mode causes a substantial loss of downforce and that disabling it at Monaco will make passing more difficult. Audi driver Gabriel Bortoleto said he expects overtaking to be harder under the change. The move is part of a format and technical response to Monaco’s chronic lack of overtaking, and last year’s one-off mandatory two-stop rule has been dropped for 2026.

Teams must shift technical emphasis toward maximum downforce and strong low- to medium-speed handling and may bring Monaco-specific high-downforce packages to compensate for the ban on active aero. Qualifying is expected to be especially decisive on Monte Carlo’s tight street layout. Observers flagged potential beneficiaries, naming Ferrari’s SF-26 and McLaren’s short-wheelbase MCL40 as cars that could gain from the fixed-aero conditions, while Mercedes arrived at the weekend as the season favorite after recent dominance and a W17 downforce upgrade introduced in Montreal. The FIA framed the ruling as a safety-driven, circuit-by-circuit application of the 2026 rules that could reshuffle the weekend pecking order without eliminating existing pace advantages, and other venues such as Montreal will retain multiple straight-mode zones.

McLaren would consider building its own F1 power unit only if new engine rules and costs made it financially and technically viable, CEO Zak Brown told media at the Indy 500, including the Sports Business Journal. He said “the numbers have to add up,” and stressed the plan was conditional, not imminent.

The team buys power units from Mercedes’ High Performance Powertrains (HPPT) and is contracted with Mercedes through at least 2030. McLaren has used customer engines for much of its modern history, including spells with Renault and Honda. Reports differ on when the McLaren–Mercedes customer tie began (either 1955 or 1995), but all accounts say it ended in 2014 and resumed in 2021.

McLaren’s recent on-track success — winning the 2024 constructors’ title and the 2025 drivers’ and constructors’ crowns — gives the team commercial and technical leverage, and some coverage says it has outperformed the Mercedes works team since 2024.

Brown’s comments came amid debate over the incoming 2026 power-unit rules. Regulators increased the hybrid-electric contribution from 20% to 50% in 2026, a change that drew driver criticism. A proposed 2027 change would shift to a 60-40 combustion-to-electric split and would need backing from at least four of the six manufacturers on the Power Unit Advisory Committee. FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem has promoted replacing the current V6 with a V8 around 2030-31.

Brown defended the current on-track product, citing races such as Miami with multiple leaders and saying drivers and rule‑makers will adapt. Any decision by McLaren to build its own engines will depend on how the sport’s technical and commercial environment evolves.

The $1.25 million sale of Gilles Villeneuve’s helmet worn at the 1982 San Marino Grand Prix set a world record for a racing helmet at auction, the Hall of Fame Collection said. CEO Darren Jack confirmed the result; the buyer was not disclosed.

The helmet is a 1982 Ferrari GPA model Villeneuve wore at Imola during his final F1 season and had been in a private collection for nearly 30 years. Predominantly red with black side stripes and a stylized red “V” on the back, the piece was authenticated by era-specific features and provenance. The auction house estimated that about five or fewer race-worn Villeneuve helmets survive; drivers’ practice of reusing helmets in that era has increased provenance and collector interest.

The helmet was not the one Villeneuve wore two weeks later when he was killed during qualifying at the Belgian Grand Prix. The $1.25 million price eclipsed the prior record for a Formula 1 helmet — Ayrton Senna’s 1992 Belgian Grand Prix helmet, which sold for £720,000 — and left Lewis Hamilton’s 2023 helmet (about $387,000) ranked third. Dealers and collectors said a combination of rarity, driver provenance and historic significance is driving rising investor appetite for top motorsport memorabilia.

The Hamilton family produced a rare double podium on the same day, pairing Lewis Hamilton’s second place at the Canadian Grand Prix with Nicolas Hamilton’s Jack Sears Trophy victory at Snetterton, a coincidence that organizers and family members framed as a moment for visibility and inclusivity in motorsport. Nicolas, who lives with cerebral palsy and became the first disabled driver to compete in the BTCC when he debuted in 2015, stood on a touring-car podium for the first time in his eighth BTCC season, and commentators described the result as both a personal breakthrough and a symbolic advance for drivers with disabilities. Lewis used his post-race platform to praise his brother and to call out barriers in racing, saying the sport is “not built to be inclusive,” posting an emotional Instagram tribute in which he said, “I could not be more proud of my brother Nicolas Hamilton,” and noting he called Nicolas as soon as his own race ended; Nicolas publicly replied, “Love you bro.”

Lewis finished second at the Canadian Grand Prix at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, a Ferrari-best runner-up result and his second podium of the 2026 season for Ferrari after Shanghai in March. He credited his mother Carmen’s presence at the race as a “lucky omen,” saying she would have to come to every race, and praised the SF-26’s balance and driveability, calling the weekend his “best experience” in a race car in some time. Lewis had battled Max Verstappen for second during the race and will move on to the Monaco Grand Prix for round seven of the 2026 season.

Nicolas’s Jack Sears Trophy win was the first silverware of his touring-car career. Reports differ on his entry details, with some accounts saying he drove the #28 Team VERTU Hyundai i30 Fastback N and others saying he raced for EXCELR8 Motorsport. At Snetterton he finished 17th in the opener and recorded back-to-back 16th-place finishes before claiming the Jack Sears Trophy, and he said, “I honestly cannot believe what has happened this weekend.” Nicolas is targeting the next BTCC event at Oulton Park.

Fernando Alonso retired from the Canadian Grand Prix at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve because an ongoing seat and cockpit-positioning problem made the car unbearably painful to drive, forcing him to stop on lap 23 (some reports said lap 24). Alonso said he needed to “stop the pain,” and the same issue had already knocked him out of the Saturday sprint. Aston Martin’s overnight attempts to fix the seat failed and, with points effectively out of reach and no rain forecast, the team chose to park the car.

Alonso had made an aggressive start on soft tyres and briefly rose into the top 10 on lap three, marking his first appearance in the points this season before his pace faded, and he was reported as running 12th when he retired. The exit was Alonso’s third retirement of the year. He described the teams package as “sub-par machinery,” said he had “more hope” for Monaco because the street circuit relies less on raw engine power, and acknowledged gearbox improvements since Miami. Alonso estimated Aston Martin still faced roughly a three-second deficit that will need engine and aerodynamic upgrades expected in the second half of the year.

Aston Martin trackside chief Mike Krack said both drivers had made ground early in the race but the squad lacked overall pace. Krack described the seat problem as a worsening pressure point and suggested the team may have pushed drivers’ cockpit positioning “a step too far” as they sit increasingly low in the chassis. The team said it will revisit cockpit set-up and attempt to build a new seat ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix. The weekend underlined broader setup and performance deficits for the team, with teammate Lance Stroll struggling for tyre temperature, grip and straight-line pace and finishing 15th after starting from the pit lane, leaving Aston Martin with limited points at their home race.